Thu, May 27, 2010 at 4:42 PM

"It's with regret that we announce the closing of our brick-and-mortar location in Lafayette, effective July 29th. We will remain in business and continue to serve our literary community here, but without the beloved gathering place we've shared over the years. Dave along with Linda will continue to provide overnight special orders, Book Culture discounts and events, book talks to book clubs, used book parking lot sales, and weekly staff picks presentations starting August 1st. Also, Dave along with Angie will continue to provide custom bookstores for conferences, conventions, and school bookfairs out of our warehouse in Fairfield. Meanwhile, Aleks, our used books manager, has proudly accepted an offer to enter a PhD program in comparative literature at the University of Minnesota in the fall.

"There are many reasons why we are closing the brick-and-mortar location, but the most salient is that our lease is up for renewal and our landlords were very aggressive in their negotiations. Given the economic challenges to running a brick-and-mortar bookstore now and in the future, we determined it isn't viable to relocate and instead will provide as many bookseller services to the community as we can without the benefit of a physical store location.

"While we won't have our traditional place to gather, we plan to keep our literary community together. Search for our page on facebook and click the 'like' button to join our virtual gathering place and we'll keep you up-to-date on our book recommendations, events, and more."

Lafayette Book Store's departure follows that of fellow CoCo County indie Clayton Books, which closed on May 23.